A little history of Grand-Pressigny castle

The first lord of Pressigny was Guillaume, mentioned in the 13th century. He put up the Old castle in 1213. You still can see remnants of this castle: a keep, the octagonal tower, the drawbrige's gate, moats, mill and subterranean.

In the reign of king Francis I, counts of Villars, from the house of Savoy, owned the castle.

François Honnorat of Savoy turned the medieval fortress into a nice Renaissance dwelling, between 1550 and 1580: he raised a rectangular main building in the middle of the barnyard with two floors and a gallery.

Three centuries later, marquis de Villars transformed this old castle into the current one. But during the French Revolution, all the buildings were sold and demolished... It nowadays houses a Prehistoric museum.

By the way, did you know on the square tower's last storey, Pressigny's lords put their archives and charters? But all those papers were destroyed in 1789...

Outside, we can see a pond: one of Pressigny lord, monsieur de Maison-Rouge, wanted to bring water from this pond in the little city's main square. He began a huge building work (they found several pipes in the park) but it was too expensive...